News

Wine: The sagrantino grape makes a comeback

By Laurie Daniel

For the Mercury News

Posted:
05/05/2014 12:00:00 PM PDT

Updated:
05/08/2014 12:33:39 PM PDT

In the 1960s, the sagrantino grape was disappearing from the hillsides around the town of Montefalco, in Italy's Umbria region. Considered indigenous to the area, sagrantino, a sturdy red grape, had been cultivated at least since the Middle Ages. The monks grew it to make a sweet sacramental wine from the dried grapes.

But sagrantino had been written off by many as just too austere and tannic for table wine. Luckily, a few vintners set about to revive the grape. Take Marco Caprai, for example. His father, Arnaldo Caprai, was in the textile business and bought land near Montefalco in 1971, planting a few acres of grapes. Marco joined his father in 1987. At the time, there were fewer than 125 acres of sagrantino; the Caprais had about 17. Marco, working with the University of Milan, started researching the best practices for growing sagrantino. (He says he approached the university in nearby Perugia but was told that sagrantino wasn't worth the investment.)

Collepiano Sagrantino di Montefalco (Contributed)

"The big step was 1995," Marco Caprai says, when the winery's 1993 Montefalco Sagrantino was awarded the top rating from Italy's influential Gambero Rosso wine magazine and annual guide. There was an explosion of investment in the Montefalco area.

Now, more than 2,400 acres of sagrantino are planted in the area, and most of the grapes go into dry wines. Many new wineries have been established. One example is Tenuta Bellafonte, founded in 2007 by Peter Heilbron, who was from Milan. He says he chose the area because he and his wife loved Umbria and saw the potential of sagrantino.

Advertisement

"My belief was that we could push a little farther for refinement, for elegance," Heilbron says. A lot of wineries produce more than just sagrantino, but not Tenuta Bellafonte. Heilbron's first vintage was 2008, and the current release, 2009, has been widely praised. With the 2009, he's achieved the elegance he was looking for -- and even he's surprised by how quickly he was able to do it.

Also relatively new to the area is the Lunelli family, who are better known for the Ferrari sparkling wines they produce in Trentino, to the northeast. The Lunellis bought property in Montefalco in 2001 and established Tenuta Castelbuono. They bought more property outside a neighboring village, where they built a winery known as the Carapace, with a shape inspired by a tortoise's shell. Alessandro Lunelli says the family liked the area because sagrantino is unique. "We're trying to prove that sagrantino has something to say," he says.

The current vintage from Castelbuono is 2007, a hot year, and the wine is a bruiser, with big tannins. By way of explanation, Lunelli says that the region is relatively young. "We need time. The wines need time," he says.

In general, as the Castelbuono demonstrates, Montefalco sagrantino is a big, powerful red with strong tannins. Some versions are somewhat rustic and earthy, but Tenuta Bellafonte shows its potential for elegance. The wines often have alcohol levels over 14 percent, and they pair well with hearty foods. (Although it's natural to think of them as wintertime wines, they are good partners to summer's grilled meats.)

Sagrantino would seem to have the potential for long aging because of its tannic structure, but as Alessandro Meniconi of the Perticaia winery notes, "Not many people have tasted many old wines." The grape's modern history in the region isn't a very long one, and many wineries haven't saved much in the way of older bottles.

Montefalco sagrantino wines aren't cheap. Most that I've tasted are in the $45-$60 range. For a less expensive alternative, there's Montefalco rosso, a blend of mostly sangiovese and sagrantino. There are also some very good white wines, notably grechetto and trebbiano spoletino, the latter being far more flavorful than the ubiquitous and often bland trebbiano toscano.

If you visit Umbria, Montefalco is worth a visit. It's a charming hill town, with steep streets and a large piazza at the top. Find the right vantage point, and you can look across the valley to the famed basilica at Assisi. There is also a wine road, the Strada del Sagrantino (www.stradadelsagrantino.it).

As mentioned earlier, Tenuta Bellafonte's 2009 ($50) is an outstanding and elegant example of Montefalco sagrantino. It's dark, ripe and structured, with black fruit, spice, a whisper of cedar and firm but approachable tannins. Another fairly approachable version is the 2007 Scacciadiavoli Montefalco Sagrantino ($45), which has warm berry fruit, hints of cedar and anise, and fairly fine tannins for sagrantino.The Arnaldo Caprai wines are also very good and should be easier to find. The 2007 Arnaldo Caprai "Collepiano" Sagrantino di Montefalco ($60) is dark and ripe, yet still fresh, with red cherry, cedar, tobacco, spice and very firm tannins, while the 2008 "25 Anni" ($100) is big and concentrated, with black fruit, cedar and very drying tannins.The sagrantinos from Perticaia have a lot of appealing freshness. The 2006 Perticaia Montefalco Sagrantino ($45) displays ripe black fruit, notes of anise and graphite and firm tannins. The 2009 ($45) will arrive in July; it's fresh and a little floral, with dark, ripe fruit, spice and firm tannins.The Lunelli family's 2007 Tenuta Castelbuono Montefalco Sagrantino ($36) is very tannic, with lively black fruit and good concentration. The 2008, which isn't available yet, is spicy and powerful, but the tannins are much finer than in the 2007. The 2007 Romanelli Montefalco Sagrantino ($40) is also dark and powerful, with a slight dried fruit note. (The 2009 Romanelli, which isn't in California yet, is also quite ripe but also a little savory.)You can find the wines from Tabarrini online at www.tabarrini.us. Two of its top wines are the 2009 Tabarrini "Colle alle Macchie" Montefalco Sagrantino ($53) which is rich and slightly earthy, with spicy black fruit and approachable tannins, and the 2009 "Campo alla Cerqua" Montefalco Sagrantino ($43), which is lively and a little floral.Montefalco rosso is considerably less expensive and quite a bit more approachable. The 2010 Scacciadiavoli Montefalco Rosso ($22) offers lively red fruit with a note of tobacco and firm tannins, while the 2010 Arnaldo Caprai Montefalco Rosso ($23) is a little cedary, with red fruit, a note of anise and medium tannins. The 2009 Antonelli Contrario ($20), a sagrantino made from young vines, is fruity and bright, with a note of anise and drying tannins.Montefalco also has some interesting whites. An example of grechetto is the 2012 Arnaldo Caprai "Grecante" Grechetto ($20), which displays plump citrus and white peach with a lot of minerality. And I was really impressed by some of the wines made from trebbiano spoletino. The wines I tasted aren't from the vintages that are currently available here, but a couple of excellent producers are Perticaia and Antonelli. Trebbiano spoletino can age, too: At Perticaia, I tasted the 2007, which had evolved some, with flavors of apricots and nuts, but it was still very fresh.